HONG KONG (Reuters) -Hong Kong’s Security Regulator (SFC) said on Monday that it had reprimanded Swiss bank UBS AG and fined it HK$8 million ($1.03 million) for misclassifying its clients’ professional investor status for more than 12 years.
A total of 560 joint accounts booked or managed in Hong Kong by the bank were misclassified, the regulator said.
In August 2021, the SFC reprimanded and fined UBS HK$9.8 million for various regulatory breaches, including failures of a similar nature, according to SFC.
UBS declined to comment.
The Hong Kong securities watchdog has since August stepped up scrutiny over banks’ regulatory breaches, dishing out fines of HK$4.2 million to HSBC and HK$23.8 million to Deutsche Bank, respectively.
($1 = 7.7675 Hong Kong dollars)
(Reporting by Farah Master and Selena Li in Hong Kong and the Beijing newsroom; Editing by Toby Chopra and Louise Heavens)
